TRIAL JUST ONE OF HER TRIBULATIONS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 22, 1993                   TAG: 9303220019
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TRIAL JUST ONE OF HER TRIBULATIONS
June Neely envisions herself as an independent woman.
But for the past two weeks, her theme song could have been "Stand By Your Man."
The 75-year-old mother of Christiansburg attorney Keith Neely has been the most constant spectator at her son's federal racketeering trial in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.
As the trial enters its third week, she offered her critique of the government's case against her son.
"They've nitpicked everything to death," she said.
Her straight talk is a far cry from the verbal shenanigans of lawyers in the courtroom. She learned to be blunt as a supervisor in a garment factory.
"If you're not, you don't get anything done," she said.
Ask her a question, her answer comes as quick as a pistol shot.
"This has gone on too long," she said of the trial. "I'm sick of it."
Still, she worries about the prison term that hangs over her son's head.
"I used to like the government," she said. "Now, I understand why people don't think much of the government. I learned one thing. Don't fight the government. They've got all our tax money behind them. It takes a rich man to fight the government."
And she's not rich, she says.
Until last fall, she drove a 1976 Ford Mustang until it started falling apart.
"I sold it for $100," she said.
She said the government's case is in equal disrepair. Some of the testimony against her son comes from witnesses with criminal backgrounds of their own.
"I think it's awful," she said. "They've been through the haystack and looked at each straw. They're bringing in all the crooks. They act like their witnesses are truthful and the best of mankind."
She said Keith Neely would often be in contact with criminals in his role as a defense lawyer.
"He's got these clients, for gosh sakes," she said. "He's got to talk to them."
She said she didn't know anything about her son being involved in drugs.
"I knew he drank," she said. "And he's been bawled out for that."
Her faith in God is what keeps her going, she said. A week before her son's trial started, her husband died. During the heavy snowstorm last week, a tree fell on her car and house.
Still, she hasn't missed a day of the trial. Keith Neely now brings her to the courthouse.
She says she's ready no matter what the verdict is.
"Whatever happens happens," she said. "This, too, will pass."
And for now, she's just doing what she thinks any mother would do.
"I'm going to stand behind him, I don't care what they've said he's done," she said. "My children are my life. I'm not saying they're angels."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB